Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Legal Walking

Legal Walking address the fact of becoming an illegal alien and therefore tries to create "legal space" within US borders. For that purpose a device will be designed for "attaching" Argentinean embassy ground (or any other country) to any type of shoe and thus be always walking, standing and touching Argentinean ground. The project functions more as a gesture than as a real solution to the problem since embassy ground is defined by perimeter. The other more serious problem is that if illegal aliens such as myself use this devices they will be easily identified by the authorities and therefore the hole purpose of the project will be reverted. This could be fixed by designing the device with a "Stealth" approach (unlike this sketch).

1 comment:

As far as the presentation of the proposal goes I would avoid calling yourself an illegal alien as I'm pretty sure you are here legally. The gesture is quite nice - and I think creating a process which creates a legal space for someone to be in no matter what age, sex, religion, or country they represent is a big step in the right direction. Maybe this device connects you to an embassy electronically like a rescue device so they know where to come get you to safety? Maybe the shoes acts as radar/police detectors to avoid conflicts (think of the game Simon on top of a shoe - indicating which side they are nearest). Maybe the soles of the shoes could be actual ground adhered to the shoe? I would take caution that any project could underline the power dynamics of citizenship/alienship if it is successful in making you "legal" - so with that in mind I like your second idea stealth better and would probably push you in that direction.